New  York  City 


The  Greatest  City  in  the  World 


By  William  Wirt  Mills 


|ASILY  leading  all  American  cities, 
disputing  first  rank  with  the  more 
ancient  cities  of  the  Old  World, 
New  York  City  enters  upon  the 
second  decade  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  and  the  third  century  of  its  own 
career.  Conceding  to  London  greater  area 
and  larger  population,  it  yields  no  other 
point  to  the  credit  of  the  British  Capital, 
which  has  been  outstripped  by  New  York  in 
trade,  foreign  and  domestic,  in  manufactures, 
in  shipping,  in  wealth,  in  active  capital,  in 
enterprise,  energy  and  enthusiasm. 

Those  who  looked  forward  a  decade  ago 
to  New  York  achieving  the  primacy  among 
the  cities  of  the  earth,  were  regarded  as 
afflicted  with  a  sort  of  pardonable  pride  in 
their  city,  but  to-day  history  is  writing  down 
as  accomplished  facts  what  then  were  re- 
garded as  flamboyant  predictions. 

With  a  population  of  3,437,202  in  1900, 
New  York  now  estimates  its  inhabitants  at 
4,711,956,  its  present  growth  at  400  persons 
a  day.  These  are  the  figures  for  the  326.9 
square  miles  embraced  within  the  five 
boroughs  that  make  up  the  corporate  entity 
known  as  New  York  City. 

But  the  real  metropolis  includes  the  92 
cities  and  towns  that  are  clustered  about  the 
city  proper.  In  this  larger  area  of  680  square 
miles  there  were  5,265,060  inhabitants  in 
1905,  more  than  6,200,000  now.  It  is  this 
population  that  is  to  be  compared  with  the 
7,537,196  people  who  are  estimated  as  living 
in  the  692  square  miles  of  Greater  London. 

At  the  present  rates  of  increase  in  the  two 
cities,  London  will  be  outstripped  by  1920, 
when  the  metropolitan  district  will  include 
the  homes  of  more  than  8,000,000  people. 

With  eleven  great  railroad  systems  and 
114  steamship  lines  focusing  at  the  greatest 
harbor  in  the  world,  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce estimates  that  goods  to  the  value  of 
considerably  over  $10,500,000,000  are  borne 
annually  upon  the  waters  of  the  harbor,  this 
huge  total  not  including  the  large  aggregate 
of  freight  handled  by  the  railroads  and  not 
figuring  in  the  harbor  traffic. 

This  traffic  was  estimated  in  volume  at 
over  150,000,000  tons,  filling  the  holds  of 
10,759  ships  in  1909,  4,501  /,i  these  being 


engaged  in  foreign  trade  and  6,259  in  coast- 

wise  traffic. 

Though  the  foreign  commerce  of  New 
York  ($1,521,966,090  in  1909)  is  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  shipping  of  the  port,  it  greatly 
exceeds  the  totals  for  the  largest  European 
ports— $1,350,000,000  for  Hamburg,  $1,300,- 
000,000  for  London,  $1,325,000,000  for  Liver- 
pool. And  these  ports  have  no  domestic 
shipping  comparable  to  the  coastwise  trade 
of  New  York. 

Unlike  other  great  commercial  cities,  New 
York  is  also  an  industrial  centre,  the  great- 
est manufacturing  city  in  the  whole  world. 
Not  only  does  the  city  trade  in  the  products 
of  all  nations,  but  it  produces  nearly  every 
sort  of  manufactured  goods. 

Within  the  limits  of  the  city  proper  there 
are  27,283  factories  and  shops  engaged  in 
297  lines  of  manufacture,  representing  an 
investment  of  $1,529,946,487,  a  sum  nearly 
half  the  total  of  the  money  in  circulation 
in  the  United  States. 

In  these  industries  there  are  74,505  salaried 
people  and  668,984  wage  earners,  making  up 
an  army  of  workers  outnumbering  the  entire 
population  of  Liverpool.  The  pay  rolls  in 
the  year  foot  up  to  $450,549,366,  or  more 
than  enough  to  buy  the  entire  city  of  St. 
Louis,  at  the  valuation  put  by  the  assessors 
upon  that  thriving  hive  of  800,000  people. 

The  materials  used  in  New  York's  manu- 
factories in  a  year  exceed  a  billion  in  value, 
and  the  estimated  wholesale  price  of  the  out- 
put of  the  city's  industries  in  1909  was 
$2,248,440,436,  or  nearly  four  time*  the 
combined  value  of  the  manufactured  goods 
exported  in  the  same  period  by  the  two 
industrial  nations,  France  and  Germany. 

In  the  making  of  women's  clothing  alone 
96,162  people  are  employed,  the  output  be- 
ing worth  $261,049,287;  56,107  are  engaged 
in  printing  and  publishing,  their  product  be- 
ing valued  at  $193,490,850;  51,983  hands 
make  men's  clothing  worth  $178,236,370; 
39,069  employes  roll  cigars  and  cigarettes 
estimated  at  $80,983,352;  18,140  bakers  make 
$68,200,711  worth  of  bread  and  cakes;  29,727 
milliners  fashion  $61,450,945  worth  of  hats; 
the  product  of  22,081  men  in  foundries  and 
machine  shops  is  valued  at  $45,634,627. 


Published  and  Copyrighted,  1910,  by  MOSES  KING,  Inc.,  New  York 


lEx  iCtbrtH 

SEYMOUR  DURST 


INICIPAL  BUILDING,  Cenire  Street  and  Park  Row,  facing  City  Hall  Park,  with  Chambers  Street  running  through  N 
e;  greatest  munic.pal  building  In  the  world,  34  stories,  539  feet  10  inches  high,  with  subway  station  in  basement 
,000  structure  housing  all  the  city  departments  except  Police,  Fire,  Docks  and  Ferries  and  Health;  building  risine 
:t,  full  area  of  the  plot  surmounted  by  " 


210  feet  10  inches  with  24-foot  figure  and  clock  face  25  feet  in  diameter^1' 


CITY  GOVERNMENT.   (1)  City  Hall  Park,  looking  south  on  Broadway.   (2)  City  Hall,  seat  of  government  of  Greater  New  York,  founded 
1624,  chartered  1653,  326.0  sq  mi,  4,71  1,956  inhabitants,  and  Borough  of  Manhattan,  21.9  sq  mi,  2,4  17,917  population;  built  1803-12. 
(3)  Borough  Hall,  Brooklyn,  incorporated  1834,  consolidated  with  New  York  1 898,  77.6  sq  mi,  1,586.934  inhabitants.  (4)  BOR- 
OUGH Hall,  Queens,  129.5  sq  mi.  (5)  Borough  Hall,  Bronx,  40.7  sq  mi.    (6)  Borough  Hall,  Richmond,  57.2  sq  mi 


PUBLIC  BUILDINGS.    II)  Hall  of  Records,  Chambers  St,  $10,000,000  granite  structure.    (2)  Barge  Office,  Battery,  where  a 
million  immigrants  are  landed  annually.  (3)  Aquarium,  Battery,  formerly  Castle  Garden,  world"s  finest  collection  of  fishes.   (4  )  BELVIDERE 
Tower,  Central  Park.  (S)  Band  Stand,  Central  Park.  (6)  Police  Headquarters,  Centre  St,  1909.  (7)  Traffic  Squad,  City 
Hall.  (8)  Apellate  Court,  Madison  Sq.   (9)  City  Prison,  Centre  St,  on  site  of  Tombs.  (10)  Criminal  Courts,  Centre  St 


FINANCIAL  INSTITUTIONS.   (1)  Stock  Exchange,  Broad  St,  founded  1792;  $3,000,000  marble  building,  1903.   (2)  National  City 
Bank,  Wall  St,  greatest  in  America,  chartered  1 8 1  2,  occupies  old  Custom  House,  built  1 84  1 ,  remodeled  1909.    (3)  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Co, 
Wall  and  Broad  Sts,  offices  of  world's  greatest  financier.    (4)  Union  Dime  Savings  Bank,  Sixth  Ave  and  40th  St,  founded  1859;  new 
building,  1910;  100,000  depositors.  (5)  Curb  Brokers.  (6)  Wall  St.  Canyon.  (7)  Clearing  House,  Cedar  St,  founded  1853 


SKYSCRAPERS.   (1)  City  Investing  Building,  Broadway  and  Cortlandt  St,  largest  office  building  under  one  roof,  1 3  acres  floor  space,  34 
stories,  486  ft  high.  (?)  Whitehall  Building,  Battery  PI,  20  stories,  254  ft  high,  addition  erected  1910,31  stories,  416  ft  high,  13.3  acres 
rentable  space  in  combined  buildings.  (31  Liberty  Tow  er.  Liberty  and  Nassau  Sts,  31  stories,  401  ft  high,  greatest  office  area  in  world 
in  proportion  to  plot,  excellent  light  and  ventilation.  (  4  )  Hudson  Terminal  Buildings,  30  to  50  Church  St,  22  stories,  275  ft  high 


GRAND  CENTRAL,  E.  42d  St;  300  x  680  ft,  with  yards  19  blocks;  double  decked,  49  tracks;  New  York  Central  and  New  Haven  Railroads 
SUBWAY  (2)  18th  St  Station.  (3)  Spring  St,  five  tracks.  (4)  Manhattan  St  Viaduct.  (5)  Borough  Hall  Station,  Brooklyn. 
$50,000,000  underground  road  built  by  city,  leased  to  Interborough  Rapid  Transit  Co,  opened  1904,800,000  passengers  a  day 
HUDSON  TUNNELS.  (6)  Steel  Section  under  river.  (7  (Jersey  City  Sta.  (8)  Concrete  Section.  Four  tubes  under  Hudson 


BRIDGES.  (1)  HendriK  Hudson  Memorial,  to  be  built  from  north  end  of  Manhattan  to  Spuyten  Duyvil.  (21  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 
to  span  Hudson  from  Washington  Heights  to  Palisades.   (3)  Washington,  over  Harlem  River,  1889.   (4>  Bow  Bridge,  Central  Park. 
(5)  Chelsea  Piers,  Hudson,  14th  to  23d  St,  $15,000,000  terminal.   16)  Bronx  River,  Bronx  Park.   (7)  Brooklyn  Bridge,  East 
River,  1883.  (8)  Manhattan,  1910,  120  ft  wide,  greatest  capacity.  19;  Williamsburg,  1903,  7,200  ft.  ( 10)  Queensboro,  1908 


METROPOLITAN  BUILDING,  Madison  to  Fourth  Ave,  23d  to  24th  St;  it  is  the  tallest  building  in  the  world,  52  stories,  700  ft  high;  home  of 
Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company,  organized  1868,  greatest  industrial  insurance  company  in  this  country,  over  10,000,000  policies 
VIEWS  FROM  TOWER,  covering  circle  with  a  radius  of  20  miles.   (2)  North  East.   (3)  West,  Hudson  River,  New  Jersey.  (4) 
NORTH  to  Palisades.   <5)  East,  Blackwell's  Island,  Queensboro  Bridge,  East  River.   (6)  South  to  skyscrapers  of  financial  district 


THOROFARES.   (  1)  Plaza  and  Fifth  Ave,  Hotels  Netherland,  Savoy,  Si.  Regis,  Gotham,  Plaza.    (2)  Union  Square,  west.    (3)  Amer- 
ica Rhal  Estate  Co  Office  Building,  Night  and  Day  Bank,  Fifth  Ave  looking  south.    (4)  Madison  Sc.h  are,  Garden,  Apellate  Court, 
Madison  Ave  (  Parkhurst)  Church,  .Metropolitan,  Flat-iron,  Fifth  Ave  Buildings.  (5)  Broadway  north  from  Bowling  Green.   (6)  4 2d  St 
west  from  Grand  Central,  Manhattan  Hotel,  Times.   (  7  )  Fifth  Ave  north  from  33d  St,  Waldorf,  Knickerbocker  Trust,  Brick  Church 


GREAT  STORES.    I  I  )  R.  H.  MACV  &  Co,  Broadway  and  34th  Si,  founded  1858,  first  department  s:ore,  26  acres.    (2)  SlEGEL  Cooper 
Co,  Sixth  Ave,  ISth  to  19th  Sis,  "The  Big  Store,"  founded  in  Chicago   1876,  New  York  1896.   (3)  Gimbfl  Brothers,  Broadway, 
32d  to  33d  Sts,  at  Pennsylvania  RR  and  Hudson  Tunnel  Terminals.     (4  1  Wanamaker's,  Broadway,  8th  to  10th  Sts,  tallest  store 
in  world  ;  also  largest,  inc'uding  old  Stewart  building.    ( 5 )  Tiffany's,  Fifth  Ave  and  37th  Si,  famous  jewelry  house,  founded  1 837 


TIMES   BUILDING,  Times  Square,  362.7  ft  alfbve  curb,  61   ft  below,  Subway  through   basement;  New  York  Times,  founded  1851. 
HOTELS.  (2)  Plaza,  252  ft  high,  largest  and  most  costly,  $12,500,000.  (3)  Waldorf  Astoria,  214  ft  high,  1,400  suites.  (4)  Astor, 
1,000  suites,  banquet  hall  seating  1,200.   (51  Delmonico's,  famous  American  restaurant,  founded  1823.   16)  Fralnce's  Tavern, 
Broad  St,  built  1 7  1 9,  scene  Washington's  Farewell  Address,  1 783,  restored  1907.  17)  Sherry's,  restaurant,  bachelor  apartments 


PARKS.    (1)  Bethesda  Fountain,  Central  Park.    (2)  Boat  Pond,  Central  Park.    (3)  Dutch  Gardens,  Van  Cortlandt  Park;  1,132 
acres.    (4)  MacMonnies'  Wild  Horses,  Prospect  Park,  Brooklyn;  516  acres.   (5)  Lily  Pond,  Botanical  Gardens,  Bronx;  250  acres. 
(6)  Falls,  Bronx  River.    (7)  Banana  Palms,  Botanical  Gardens.    (8)  Ferns,  Conservatory  Dome.    <9)  Zoological  Park, 
Bronx.  26 1  acres.  1 10'  Giraffes.  (11)  Wapiti.     I2>  Lion  House    !13.  Bears.  '  14 /  Elephant  House.  (IS)  Elephant 


The  Greatest  City  in  the  World 

Continued 


Having  outdistanced  all  rivals  in  commer- 
cial conquest  and  industrial  enterprise,  New 
York  has  become  one  of  the  four  financial 
centres  of  the  world,  ranking  with  London, 
Berlin  and  Paris  as  a  money  market. 

The  banking  power  of  New  York  is  esti- 
mated at  $4,553,700,000,  which  is  26  per 
cent  of  the  $17,642,700,000  that  represents 
the  resources  of  the  21,000  banks  of  the  en- 
tire United  States  and  10  per  cent,  of  the 
$45,750,300,000  banking  power  of  the  whole 
world. 

The  average  volume  of  actual  cash  in  the 
banks  of  New  York  is  half  a  billion,  which 
is  14  per  cent,  of  all  the  money  in  the  United 
States,  and  more  than  one-third  of  all  the 
cash  held  in  all  the  banks  of  the  country. 
Nearly  a  quarter  of  all  the  money  in  circula- 
tion in  the  United  States  is  in  New  York. 

In  the  New  York  Clearing  House  the  ex- 
changes in  1909  amounted  to  $103,588,738,- 
320,  an  increase  of  30.6  per  cent,  over  1898, 
while  the  record  of  the  London  Clearing 
House  in  1909  was  $65,868,922,000,  or 
$37,719,816,320  less  than  New  York,  and 
London's  increase  in  eleven  years  was  only 
11.5  per  cent. 

In  the  past  decade  the  country's  wealth 
has  increased  30  per  cent.,  while  New  York 
realty  values  have  advanced  108  per  cent. 
New  York's  land  and  buildings  are  estimated 
as  worth  $8,104,481,155,  while  the  assess- 
ments of  property  in  Greater  London  foot  up 
to  barely  $290,000,000. 

While  the  municipal  budget  for  1910  is 
$163,128,270,  the  actual  expenditures  will  foot 
up  to  something  over  $170,000,000,  which  is 
the  estimated  cost  of  the  government  of 
Greater  London.  While  the  municipal  debt 
is  $713,637,668,  this  is  offset  by  the  fact  that 
the  city  owns  real  estate  and  revenue  pro- 
ducing properties  such  as  docks,  water 
works  and  subways,  to  the  value  of 
$920,499,760,  including  parks  and  public 
buildings  valued  at  $435,342,205. 

New  York's  public  schools  have  730,234 
pupils,  with  an  average  attendance  of 
574,664  as  compared  with  649,136  in  Lon- 
don, with  a  teaching  force  of  17,073  in  New 
York  and  18,562  in  London.  The  city's 
school  houses  are  worth  $92,283,825,  and  the 


cost  of  maintaining  the  system  in  1909  was 
$31,073,753,  as  compared  with  $22,000,000 
expended  upon  the  London  schools. 

Passengers  are  carried  on  the  local  rail- 
ways of  the  city  at  the  rate  of  a  billion  and 
a  half  a  year,  as  compared  with  1,400,000,000 
in  London,  and  875,000,000  in  Paris.  There 
are  3,366  trains  to  and  from  the  city  daily, 
carrying  650,000  passengers,  and  600,000 
people  daily  cross  the  East  River  bridges. 

The  New  York  Post  Office,  serving  only 
Manhattan  and  The  Bronx,  in  1909  handled 
2,410,743,448  pieces  of  mail,  while  the  Lon- 
don Post  Office,  covering  a  much  larger 
area,  in  1908  handled  only  1,694,000,000 
pieces.  The  receipts  of  the  New  York  Post 
Office  in  1910  exceed  $22,000,000,  one-tenth 
of  the  revenues  of  the  United  States. 

For  the  accommodation  of  the  largest 
transient  population  to  be  found  anywhere 
in  the  world,  averaging  200,000,  and  the 
largest  permanent  hotel  population,  100,000, 
New  York  maintains  over  700  hotels,  repre- 
senting an  investment  of  $243,000,000,  and 
capable  of  entertaining  300,000  people  with- 
out crowding.  And  over  a  half  billion  is 
spent  annually  in  the  city's  5,300  restau- 
rants and  700  hotel  dining  rooms.  The 
annual  food  supply  of  the  city  is  estimated 
as  costing  $1,750,000,000. 

The  growth  of  New  York  is  vividly  illus- 
trated by  its  building  statistics,  102,561  new 
structures  having  been  erected  in  the  past 
seven  years  at  an  estimated  cost  of  $1,313,- 
079,318,  a  quarter  of  a  billion  having  been 
expended  in  1909,  employing  50,000  men,  the 
outlay  being  one-third  of  the  total  for  the 
country's  92  largest  cities. 

Included  in  these  figures  were  21,502 
apartment  houses,  which  cost  $584,335,710, 
providing  quarters  for  258,024  families,  and 
54,371  dwellings,  costing  $243,948,531. 

These  big  facts  but  begin  to  tell  the  tale 
of  the  greatness  of  the  city  that  has  risen 
since  that  day,  three  centuries  ago,  when 
Hendrik  Hudson  sailed  up  the  river  named 
after  him,  and  saw  the  wigwams  of  the 
Indians  on  the  wooded  island  that  now 
holds  the  tallest  and  the  largest  buildings 
and  is  the  centre  of  the  greatest  business 
interests  of  the  whole  world. 


